One fine weekend
 

Had a great weekend that ended with a great ride in great weather!

First off friday when I got from work I rode to my moms to babysit our boy as my wife was going out with her work friends, first time in two years I finally managed to kick her arse enough to go let off some steam. Had a good time there and managed to get some pending jobs done like fix the lawnmower and do some odd jobs around the house (she`s getting a bit old and can`t take care of everything anymore), Saturday witnessed an epic rainstorm just as we were about to leave home so I left the bike there and jumped into the car with the rest, when they went to sleep I stayed up playing GTA V and sipping beer till 4am. Woke up today to the doorbell as my neighbor came asking for help, a long extension cord of his electric lawnmower has malfunctioned and busted the fuse so I fixed it for him, got many thanks and made plans to have a BBQ party next friday, he brings the meat. Got into very good mood about that I was able to help him and save him a good amount of money, paid off to read three years to become an electrician :icon_teeth: Later we went to pick the bike up and took the portable air con machine with us that I had laying around in the garage, got it out of my way and to good use in her bedroom for the summer, a bit expensive doorchuck IMO @350 EUR...

My wife and our boy went swimming to a remote little lake and I decided to go with them as I could ride home via one of the best detour roads I know and decided to take some pics along the way:

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Trail bikes, pffft who needs them when you got a CBR! Can easily keep 60-80km/h on a good condition gravel road.

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The remnants of the old ferry port at the side of the bridge. There are these beside virtually every small rural bridge but sadly almost all of the old ferries have become extinct and replaced with bridges. My sig pic has been taken on the same spot looking 90 degrees to the right.

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Fast paced tight winding corners back to back, blind crests with the road changing direction right behind keeps you on your toes the whole time. There are countless of km:s of little rural roads like this around Finland if you know where to look from. There`s basically no 5 minutes of road where you won`t pass at least one lake.

http://kuvaton.com/k/yjL7.jpg

Speaking of lakes, here`s another. If I had to pick my favourite curve I`d pick this one, an almost 180 degrees tight left going steeply uphill climbing atop the sheer rock wall just out of the picture in the left side.

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A small creek lifting fog into the cooling evening.

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...Oh, did I mention this road starts 5km from our house. Now we may not have snow topped mountains, no gorges or canyons and in wintertime the temps are just barely bearable but I must say it doesn`t hurt my eyes going around the countryside through a falling summer evening. "Green gold" as some say. Just remember if you are planning to make a stop, bring a can or two of bug spray cause when the mosqitoes smell the sweat under the little too warm riding jacket they have NO mercy, and they are called Legion, for there are MANY!

Nice pics Mattson,
Looks a lot like our NZ scenery. Would almost mistake it for nz if it wasn't for the lack of white lines on the road. In the city I live in, rotorua, we have loads of lakes too. We have 26 of them all within a half hours ride from the city. He'll the city itself is on the edge of a lake. We also have nz highest thermal activity with mud pools, steaming geysers etc. you have those in Finland too don't ya?
Question, did you fabricate the tail light on your bike or can you purchase them? Looks mint.
Cheers mate
KB

Nope, no Geysirs or mud pools, in fact virtually no volcanic activity or earthquakes at all. We do have a lot of springs but none of them are hot.

The tail light is fabricated out of two universal LED lights, think it was these:

Motoplaza.org - LED-takavalot - SHARK NOSE LED-minitakavalo.

Surprised to hear NZ has similar scenery, always have thought it to be somewhat different... You do have a lot of meadows with big sheep herds there right? Do you have coniferous trees? most of the trees here are.

There are 187 888 lakes in Finland so they are basically everywhere. The town I live in nowadays, Vääksy, sits on a narrow ridge between two big lakes, there even is a canal going through the narrowest point. Very pretty place, the ridge rises up just behind our house very steeply, and from the top you can see both lakes at the same time.

The smaller rural roads usually lack the median lines, dunno why, but all the main roads do have them.

Great pics Matty. That actually looks like some of the roads around here that I found recently. They're nowhere near 5km away from my house - but it doesn't really matter as I don't have a registered (or rideable for that matter) bike at the moment.

That`s why it`s good to have one bike to work on and another to ride :D

Nice pictures Matti,

Thanks for sharing the northern hemisphere summer!

Cheers, SB

Sure do, Douglas fur, redwood, kauri, pine etc belong to that family of trees. We have most of me here in nz. The thread I posted a few days ago of my first winter ride, has a picture of the redwood forest or in Maori, Whakawerawera forest.

And haha no we don't have huge sheep, that's just a rumour created by the Aussies so the rest of the world wouldn't question them about their Koala bear fetishes :)

But yeah we have sheep, and other livestock too :)

nice pics Mattson, and what a road to ride

...and what's best, it's just one of many. We're celebrating Juhannus, or midsummer eve, here two weeks from now and Missynet's coming here to spend it with us, a long weekend, three or four bikes depending is my neighbor joining us, and a 260km route planned along roads similar to that, topped off with a few cold ones and a smoker BBQ at nightfall. Yea I think I can live with that :D

sounds like a good time will be had, all enjoy yourselves